[jamarkadams5]

Hi all
2011 V6 with 167k miles, fsh.
Every time the weather freezes, the 40A fuse blows for the air compressor. The car is kept outside. What is supposed to prevent the compressor from ingesting moisture and freezing? How can I prevent it happening? I have to use the car for short trips most days and with early starts, even during recent minus 4 degree temps.
I’m running on almost no air up front and I think it’s very dangerous. Advice please 🙏🏻🙏🏻

 

[NoobyT]

Obviously you have moisture in the system.

There is a drier pack somewhere that is no longer doing its job and you have leaks so you need to have a good look around and see what's failed.

There have been discussions about charging the air system with nitrogen too.

In the meantime I spotted this ebay seller, see next post.

Might be worth calling him as it may be that he offers a quick fix to keep the struts full of air.

 

[NoobyT]

VolksWagen Touareg Air Compressor Pump and Dryer Air Suspension Repair Kit Wabco | eBay

Volkswagen Touareg Wabco Air Suspension Compressor Pump and Dryer Repair Kit. WABCO 4154033050. If your air springs are old, split, cracked, corded or perished you will have to keep topping up. Replacing the springs is a must if they are not in good condition.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[jamarkadams5]

Hi again everyone. I’m getting closer to the reason my ride height compressor freezes during cold weather, blowing the 40A fuse.
Apparently during its last service, the mechanic found the engine air filter case was wet with a lot of water.
I have the use of a lift and on Tuesday, I’m going to take out the compressor and bring it home for inspection and probable rebuild.
Can I drive the car home, which is about 1/4 mile from the nice guy who lent me his lift?
I don’t want to leave the car there while I rebuild the compressor. Thanks!!🙏🏻

 

[Cass]

My front end went awry a few months ago and the air supply unit needed replacing (expensive - about £2k plus lots of labour hours) but thankfully all done under VW Extended Warranty. A tedious wait for the new part but VW stumped up for a courtesy car for the 7-8 weeks I was without it

There are green plastic drop links attached to the chassis as well (4 of them, 1 on each corner - levelling sensors) - 1 of mine snapped due to the high level of the front so check them out as well.

The Air Susp is indeed filled with nitrogen (special VW tool required) and all sorts of warning lights were thrown up when my car initially suffered the failure. No doubt VCDS was needed to delete these and recalibrate the system.

Edit - found my thread on this issue here:

T3 Air Suspension/Running Gear Fault - Red Warning Light 👨‍🔧

Getting value from VW Assistance and my VW Extended Warranty these days. The Treg threw a hissy fit yesterday with a red warning light for the Running Gear. Very strangely, it was on the same road as my first ABS sensor failure whilst visiting Craster in Northumberland 🐟 Basically the ride...

www.mytreg.com

 

[rgh0]

T1 / T2 cars used air with a drier system for fresh air intake and air venting in the suspension system. T3 plus cars use a dry nitrogen filled system with no drier. The T3 plus system does not vent but the compressor recycles the dry nitorgen in the system as the suspension is raised or lowered and and only pulls in outside air if the reservoir pressure is too low as i understand it.

Either you have a T2 with a stuffed drier or a T3 that has not been charged with dry nitrogen or has drawn in outside air due to leaks in the system. Unfortunately you dont provide details except a 2011 Treg which depending on what 2011 means e,g, Build date ? registraton date ? could be a T2 or T3

 

[rgh0]

Engine air filter has nothing to do with the air compressor for the suspension. But you do probably have a compressor problem from your other post

Driving slowly on the suspension for a short distance without the compressor should be Ok as the residual pressure valves on the air struts should maintain acceptable suspension

 

[jamarkadams5]

Engine air filter has nothing to do with the air compressor for the suspension. But you do probably have a compressor problem from your other post

Driving slowly on the suspension for a short distance without the compressor should be Ok as the residual pressure valves on the air struts should maintain acceptable suspension

Thanks! The outside temperature this morning is 5 degrees C, so I put a new fuse in and immediately after starting the engine, the can returned to its normal ride height, compressor is working well again. (I now have another problem; the alternator isn’t charging but it’s obviously unconnected with the compressor). So I’m sure there is moisture in there somewhere which keeps freezing up. So next Tuesday I’m taking the compressor off to find out what’s going on. Actually, there might be a common issue here. If water somehow got into the air filter casing, somehow got into the compressor, I guess it could have got into the alternator too. All are pretty close to each other. Could driving through flooded roads do this? If so, is it a known problem? Seems very strange…

 

[rgh0]

Water in air filter, water in alternator causing a failure and water being drawn into suspension air compressor could possibly be related if you drove through a lot of deep water, but no real reason why all could have problems at same time as all have decent systems of water protection

 

[NoobyT]

I believe there is an air drier in the air suspension system.

If the dessicant is wet this could be freezing and blocking the system

I think the first thing you should do is use soapy water spray to see if there are any air leaks in the system on a warmish day before dismantling anything.

 

[Cass]

Thread now merged as responses were appearing on 2 separate threads - all now on this thread

Cass

 

[Cass]

Water in the Air Filter is a known issue on the T3/T4 and could be unrelated to your other issues. There was a modification (drain hole 🤔) but best to either keep an eye on it or have mod done as you could end up with turbo damage or worse. Previous threads on the subject including this one:

WATER IN AIR FILTER

Hello, My 2015 Touareg 3.0 TDI Rline keep getting water in the air filter. I changed the filter 300 miles ago and I checked it and the bottom of the filter was completely wet and braking down. I have checked it because when I bought the car the filter was very wet. originally I though may be...

www.mytreg.com

 

[Inspira2]

My 40A fuse blew in a cold snap before Chrismas. I know I have a leak, it's slow though and takes 3 or four days to be noticable. I've had it for some time so my Nitrogen is long gone. I've had a couple of goes at finding the leak, one day I'll find it and fix it but until then there's no point in getting the Nitrogen replaced.

It's fine to drive with you compressor functioning but if you've a leak don't end up driving it on the bump stops.